Summit Meeting At Birdland LP

Summit Meeting at Birdland pulls together Charlie Parker sets taped at the 52nd Street club named for his own nickname, Bird. Side one is a 1951 date with Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Roy Haynes; the rest covers two 1953 club nights, one with organist Milt Buckner's trio, the other with John Lewis and Kenny Clarke. Columbia first put the album out in 1977. AllMusic's Scott Yanow rates the 1951 side the highlight, and biographer Brian Priestley called the Gillespie-Powell pairing 'a sparkling 25 minutes.' Buy it for that side alone.